California Dreaming
by simplyind3e
Summary: Elena Gilbert thinks she's landed the dream job as a journalist in one of California's most popular papers and is starting to believe she can finally start to enjoy her new life. Too bad she's under the watchful eye of her editors son, Damon Salvatore.DxE *story on a previous user*


**This was a fic that I started on my old account, and it had so many rewievs and follows, but I can't remember my password and I just want to cry. I have like 3 accounts because my memory is like a goldfishes. Anway, I just wanted you all to know that I haven't stolen this from seriouslyindEe, because, Alas, SeriouslyindEe became Simplyind3e. **

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer- I own nothing. Sadly.**

* * *

_And Im gonna miss you like a child misses their blanket,  
but I've gotta get a move on with my life.  
Its time to be a big girl now, and big girls don't cry.__  
_

Chapter One-**  
Big Girls Don't Cry**.

"You have to promise to come home every holiday." Jenna sniffled.

Elena laughed and pulled her Aunt in for another hug. "I promise. And I'll even come home if I ever get the chance. Its not like I'll be disappearing off the face of the earth."

Jenna wiped at her nose with the tissue she had stuffed up her sleeve and gave her a forced smile. "Its just gonna be difficult not being able to see your face everyday. Not to mention I won't have any girl time with a houseful of raging male hormones." Her guardian sighed unhappily. "I just hope this is the right decision."

"It is the right decision, Jenna. I have to put the past behind some day right?" Elena smiled as her Aunt released her. "And what better way than to begin my future somewhere Im not reminded of everything that held me back? Don't worry about me."

Jenna snorted and looked up towards the ceiling. "Its not just you Im worried about. Im worried about your brother." She admitted. "He's been having a hard time lately. We all have."

Elena, feeling rather guilty and uncomfortable, decided not to answer. Instead, she let the hem of her favourite white lace eyelet take her attention as she concentrated on the perfect stitch. A car horn honked outside, breaking the silence.  
"That's Matt." Elena breathed out, voice shaky. Uneven, unsure. Truth be told, now her ride to the future was calling, she could hardly tear herself away from the spot she stood in. Jenna made a sound in the back of her throat and dabbed at her eyes with a careful finger so she didn't smudge her mascara. Elena looked at the stairs, hoping to see Jeremy rush down and say goodbye, but another honk from Matt told her she didn't have much time. Before she could even attempt to make a move, Jenna had her enveloped in another hug, the familiar scent of her beloved guardian imprinting itself onto the clothes she wore.

"I love you, 'Lena." Jenna whispered softly into her ear, using the nickname she'd had since she was little. "Jeremy will understand."  
Elena allowed herself a giggle and tried her best to attempt escaping her aunt's hold. "Eventually, anyway." The hairebrained woman corrected herself. "We know how stubborn he can be. But he _will_ come around." Her tone was full of assurance, and like always, Elena didn't doubt it for a second.

"I just feel like I've let him down." Elena sighed, shoulders sinking. "In a way, Its as if Im abandoning him. But its not just that that's hurting him. Its the promise I made and am about to break without a second thought..." She trailed. "No, actually, thats not true." She amended, shaking her head. "I gave this move a lot of thought. And my parents would've wanted me to do this. My mom pushed me in the direction of journalism, and truth be told, I love it. I would be an idiot if I passed it up. Jer just has to accept that. I love him, he knows that. Support is all I can give, and in the past, I've done it all for him."

Jenna sniffled again and smiled sadly, nodding furiously. "Oh. He knows that you'd go to hell and back for him."  
Elena began to open her mouth in reply, but the words forming on her tongue never made an appearance.

"And he'd go to hell and back for you." A gruff, familiar, warm voice floated down the stairs like music to Elena's ears. Leaning over the banister with a lopsided grin plastered on his face, Jeremy acknowledged the two women below him with wide brown eyes he had inherited from his beauty of a mother, Miranda, and the mischevious spark that they held, given to him by his braniac of a father, Grayson. "Just don't expect me to like it."

A grin stretched across Elena's features as she hopped up the stairs two at a time, ready to plunge herself into his open arms. For a sixteen year old boy that should've been more interested in video games, he held real, genuine warmth in his heart, and all of it was, and forever would be, focused on Elena and Jenna. They were everything that he had left, and _nothing _concerning them would be impossible. "You don't have to like it, Jer," Elena murmured into his shoulder. "you just have to accept it."

He hung on tighter, feeling every emotion he'd ever kept bottled up come rushing to the surface. As always, his beloved big sister was right, but the stubborn teenager within would never let himself admit it. He'd always been susceptible to change, but loosing his parents and his sister within the space of a year was proving to be too much. He just didn't want the darkness to take over. He feared there would be no-one there to bring him back from the edge. "Can't say I could do that either." He whispered after a moment, chuckling softly. "Your all I have left, Elena. Please, be safe." There. Finally, he said it. It felt as if the burden he'd been carrying for the past few months was being lifted and everything felt lighter.

Elena pulled away, shocked by the sudden display of affection. She knew he loved her, as she did him, but she'd never heard him say it out loud. "I have to do this. You know that, right?" She felt him chuckle again, and the kiss he planted atop her head. He felt the conversation drifting into dangerous, emotional terrirtory, so thinking on his feet, he changed the subject.  
"Just like you had to sneak out junior year to that duke party mom and dad wouldn't let you go to?" Elena pulled back and smacked him playfully on the arm. "And I got what I deserved." She amended, smiling fondly at the memory. "Loosing 15 dollars in the process..." She trailed. Jeremy laughed, remembering the night all of Elena's bad girl glory kicked in. Everything had changed now. She had wanted to say 'and lost my parents in the process' instead, but she understood how uncomfortable Jeremy felt and didn't want to make the sweet moment any more awkward than it needed to be. "You had to keep me quiet somehow, huh?" He chuckled.  
"Yeah, but I didn't think I'd have to be bribed. Blackmail is ugly." Elena snickered and reached up to ruffle her brothers hair, but he moved out of dodge, barely escaping her outstretched hand as he skipped two by two down the stairs to where Jenna waited by the door. Matt was beside her, eyeing Elena's suitcases to calculate the chances of getting them all in his truck.

Elena took the stairs at a much slower pace than Jeremy, carefully prolonging the time she just didn't have on her side but wished to God she had more of. Matt smiled up at her warmly, his concerns no longer on the amount of luggage he had to haul outside and into the bed of his truck as she cunningly avoided every creaky spot in each step, just as she had done when she was a little girl. It was a comforting memory, a farewell to her past. "Hey," Matt's bright blue eyes bore into Elena's. "You ready?" Elena wanted to ask if it was a trick question, but she avoided her snarkiness and forced a smile instead. "As I'll ever be."

Sensing that the Gilbert/Sommer's family needed another few moments, Matt said his goodbyes to Jenna and Jeremy, then stepped outside onto the porch. As soon as they were alone, Elena laughed softly, uncomfortably. "I guess I'd better get going then." Although she didn't mean to, a sad sigh followed it, contradicting the bright smile she wore on her face. Unlike Jeremy, she had _never_ been susceptible to change. It was something she hated and always would. But she just _had _to give her dream a shot. If not for her, for her mothers memory.

Jeremy stayed silent, swaying backwards on the heels of his trainer clad feet whilst Jenna wringed her hands together. Neither of them said anything. They didn't need to. Elena gave them another bright, albeit slightly forced smile before pulling on her jacket and buttoning it up. Winter had made an appearance early this year and the chill to the cold outside was otherworldly. She didn't want to risk getting ill.

"I'll see you soon." With those words, she turned on her heel and opened the front door, feeling strangely odd and frightened. With sickly realisation, she found that it wasn't the door to her house anymore. Once she stepped outside, she'd be a guest everytime she would visit and she didn't know if she could handle that.  
The door closed behind her as she placed a foot onto the porch. Reluctantly, she let her right leg drop with a sigh. There. All it took was two tiny steps to change her life forever.

Matt noticed her and stood up from the porch swing, making his way over to where she was staring at her boots. "To California?" he asked, skeptisism in his eyes as he thrust a sarcastic fist into the air.

Elena took a deep breath and felt herself nodding.

"To California."


End file.
